Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker exits South Carolina game with knee injury

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker suffered what appeared to be a significant injury in the fourth quarter of the team's game at South Carolina on Saturday.

Hooker held onto the ball and went down to the turf in a non-contact situation that affected his left knee as he sought to cut through a hole to get additional yardage.

Hooker laid on the turf for several minutes, clearly in pain as trainers attended to him. The quarterback limped off the field and was immediately escorted to the Vols' injury tent on the sideline for further evaluation.

A brutal night for Tennessee got worse as Hendon Hooker goes down on a non-contact play. Awful. pic.twitter.com/ekmoMVyGNc
— Kevin Negandhi (@KevinNegandhi) November 20, 2022

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker heads to the locker room, with a slow walk, not putting much pressure on leg.

A fantastic season for Hooker, which hopefully doesn’t end in Columbia. pic.twitter.com/3QgWlRXEdG
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) November 20, 2022

Officials then reviewed the play and ruled that Hooker fumbled the football after initially calling him down. Hooker walked to the Tennessee locker room under his own power as backup quarterback Joe Milton entered the game in reserve.

Hooker has been the clear engine behind Tennessee's offensive renaissance this season, and the major influence behind the unit being ranked No. 1 nationally in total production for much of the season.

He entered Saturday's game with 2,888 passing yards in total with 24 touchdown passes and two interceptions. The quarterback added 405 yards rushing with five additional touchdowns on the ground.

The senior transferred to Tennessee from Virginia Tech prior to last season and took control of the starting quarterback position two weeks into the 2021 campaign.

In that first season at the helm, Hooker passed for 2,945 yards with 31 touchdowns and three interceptions, running for 613 more yards and five touchdowns.

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